The challenge each year is to try and play seven home games... we will always have games against an opponent for a guarantee at home." - Julie Hermann

What is the cost of victory? For Rutgers yesterday, it was $850,000. That’s how much the school will pay Eastern Michigan for coming to Piscataway this weekend — the most Rutgers has ever paid an opponent for a game.

There are many variables that go into building an out of conference schedule, but guarantee games have become a constant.

Rutgers is no outlier in maintaining the practice. This year they had two such games: Norfolk State, an FCS team, last week and Eastern Michigan from the Mid-American Conference.

Through a public records request, The Star-Ledger was able to gather contracts Rutgers signed to play its out-of-conference opponents since 2009 and find out just how much these games will cost the athletic department.

This season, however, has shown the high-risk, low-reward nature of such games. They make for expensive additions to the schedule that draw little fan interest and much embarrassment if they result in losses. Two weeks ago, on the opening weekend of the season, seven FCS teams won on the road to upset more acclaimed schools — including one win over a ranked team. Those teams, according to an ESPN.com report, received a cumulative $2.375 million.

And the prices are escalating. Michigan paid Akron $900,000 for their last-second victory Saturday, according to an ESPN report. Last season Nebraska paid Arkansas State $1 million for a game in Lincoln, according to the Associated Press. Athletic director Tom Osborne called it the "going rate."

"The challenge each year is to try and play seven home games if possible," athletic director Julie Hermann told The Star-Ledger in an email. "In doing so, we will continue to play a power five conference opponent annually in addition to keeping some of our regional rivalries in place. As with the other schools in the Big Ten, we will always have games against an opponent for a guarantee at home."

As part of the contract, Rutgers agreed to pay Howard $3,500 if they brought their band and played during halftime — essentially booking a halftime show. The school did the same with Norfolk State in 2010.

But it is necessary business. Home games are valuable assets for every college football program, Rutgers included. An athletics department spokesman said the school makes upwards of $1 million in gross revenue, on average, during each home game. That means it is assured of a profit for guaranteed games.

"The only way it’ll change is if FBS teams decide they don’t want to necessarily pay a guarantee to a team to come in and they start playing each other at the higher level, every home and away is against top six conference," said Tony Weaver, an assistant professor for sport and event management at Elon University and a former college administrator. "But the reality is that’s hard to do is because everybody wants to play at home."

Hermann said Rutgers is currently looking to lock in two opponents for the 2016 and 2017 seasons. Those schedules will likely look different than the ones before them.

In joining the Big Ten, Rutgers will now have to play by different rules. Starting in 2016, the conference will begin running nine-game schedules, leaving just three out-of-conference opponents for schools to book. And each division will alternate hosting five conference home games every other year.

Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said he wants conference members to adopt a de facto policy banning FCS opponents, beginning in 2016. But he told the Associated Press last week that there will be no penalties for teams that don’t.

When asked if Rutgers will follow the Big Ten policy, Kyle Flood was non-committal. The coach said he and Hermann will sit down to talk about it.

"I think college football, in general, works best when it’s regional," he told The Star-Ledger. "And the more you can keep it regional the better it is for not only your fan base but for the fan bases of the other teams. Whatever our out-of-conference games are, I would hope that they could be somewhat regional when the teams and when the schedules allow for that. I’ve been on the other side of those FCS games. After the results this year, I don’t know that if anybody sees those games as an automatic win."

Still, Rutgers did cancel a 2016 game against Howard, an FCS team, with the Big Ten in mind.

"Based on the recent change in our conference affiliation and the new requirements of the Big Ten conference, we will be unable to participate in the game we had scheduled with you," a Rutgers official wrote in a letter voiding the deal, which was acquired via the open records request.

The school has already beefed up their future schedule — though those decisions were made prior to Rutgers joining the Big Ten.

Rutgers has signed a contract to host UCLA on Sept 1, a Thursday night, to open its 2016 season. In 2017 — no matter how they do in the Big Ten — they will play at the Rose Bowl. In 2018 they will travel to play at Kansas and host Miami. That it will cost Rutgers nothing in net payments to play these games is also a benefit.

That schedule is indicative of the issues that come with trying to pack a schedule with substantive opponents: it would involve a lot of travel.

"I don’t know if your fan base would get as much out of it as you could if you kept it more regional," Flood said. "With, as we go forward, the teams that aren’t going to be in our conference — like UConn and Temple and UMass."

For now, Rutgers will proceed as they have been. Many out-of-conference games are scheduled years in advance and the 2014 schedule is no different. Along with visits to Seattle for Washington State and Annapolis to face Navy, and a home game against Howard, they will host Tulane to finish their non-conference schedule. An $800,000 check awaits Tulane, and for Rutgers — it hopes — a victory.